Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus is credited with coming up with the phrase, “in the land of the blind, a one eye man is king”. I first heard it from another Dutchman when I worked for an iconic Dutch brand called Heineken. One interpretation of its meaning, in the marketing context, is you don’t have to be perfect, you just need to be better than your competition.
And where does one find “better’? In one word: Differentiation. More than 2 years ago our tiny agency saw the Digital train coming down the track. The bigger guys were happy to ignore it, choosing instead to focus on their area of comfort; press, radio and TV. Our difference has helped us serve our clients better and also to attract new business.
So what’s your point of difference for your product or service? Trotters serves its customers a brand of warm, responsive, “real” service. Their service stands out in the land of the blind. So does TTEC’s among utilities. Optometrists as an industry. (how come so many of them are so good?) Pick an attribute that’s important to your customers and own it and you will be the “one eye man”.
